Unexpected Afterlife
by almost stupid
Summary: (Remake FF9/RWBY crossover). As the final battle continued, Vivi began to realize that these might be his last moments with his friends. But rather then be sad, Vivi was happy. He knew his friends enough that they would continue to make the world a better place. As the battle ended, Vivi was content with death. However, somebody else felt that Vivi could still do good elsewhere.
1. Chapter 1

_This is it,_ Ramuh thought, _their entire journey has led to this final push. Zidane, lead them to victory._

The Lightning Warlock watched on with the other Eidolons from their ethereal plane as the misfit band of heroes battled the eternal enemy of life, Necron. A long time ago, Necron was sealed away by the fabled Warriors of Light, doomed to dwell in it's own personal "Zero world". However, back then it was simply called Chaos. Throughout the millennium, Chaos reincarnated itself time and time again with a new name and image, sometimes even planting it's own twisted thoughts into the minds of others when reincarnation wasn't possible. It was a depressing thought for the Eidolons, knowing that this horrible hybrid of wrath and destruction would exist as long as life existed.

Chaos, or whatever it's new incarnation called itself, can never truly be defeated, only banished. Banished to the deepest, darkest part of the void where it would wait and feed off the evil emotions and sins of humans. Greed, Lust, Wrath, Envy, and everything else associated with them gave energy to Chaos, until it had enough to be reborn anew. Just like how the Eidolons will forever be linked to creation, Chaos will forever be linked to destruction.

Now as the fate of all life was once again being decided in battle, Ramuh and the others watched, hopeful that these unlikely heroes would come out victorious. Both sides looked to be close to their limits. Zidane and Vivi were the only two left that had any energy to stand though Vivi had to lean against his staff, while Necron seemed to be casting it's spells at a slower rate.

Zidane and Vivi looked back to their friends, seeing that Garnet, Quina, Freya, Steiner, Eiko, and Amarant were either knocked out or too exhausted to even move. Faced with a do or die situation, Zidane and Vivi looked at each other and gave a nod. With all the strength he could muster, Zidane threw the legendary Ultima Weapon like a javelin at the face of Necron. One half of the twinblade sunk into the pale face of the harbinger of destruction, but before it could reel back in pain, Vivi followed it up with the strongest Flare spell that he could possibly manage. But it wasn't directed at Necron, it was directed at the weapon, specifically at the blade that was inside the head. The result of the spell caused both the weapon and Necron's head to explode into tiny particles. Necron remained motionless for what felt like ages as Zidane and Vivi looked on, heaving each labored breath and ready to pass out at any moment.

Suddenly, and without sound, Necron exploded in a blinding white light, it's fragments quickly disappearing into the ether. The force of the blast launching the the two friends back several feet onto their backs and into darkness.

Ramuh smiled as the final blow was dealt. It would easily take thousands of years before Necron could be reincarnated again. Although the respite would only be temporary, it would still be welcomed. The Lightning Warlock did a quick scan of life to make sure that the Champions of Light were alright, he smile quickly shifted into a worried frown. There was only seven signs of life in his scan!

Giving each of them an individual scan, Ramuh realized that Vivi had no life left in his core, the poor little guy gave everything he had left to finish that fight.

" **NO!"** Ramuh boomed at seeing the shy, yet well-manned and unique golem lifeless.

" _What's wrong old one?_ " Asked the chirpy voice Carbuncle, the magical protector of the Lifa Tree. Without a reply, Ramuh began muttering a spell of some kind under his breath that Carbuncle was unable to hear. The animal-like Eidolon stood next to Ramuh as Vivi's spirit essence was drawn from his body.

" _WHAT DO YOU CALL YOURSELF DOING RAMUH?"_ Carbuncle screamed.

"I'm giving this young one a second chance at life," Ramuh replied back somewhat calmly, "He fought until the very end for a world that will never completely accept him. I'll accept whatever consequences that come but I will not allow this bright, innocent light to be snuffed out so soon."

As Ramuh finished speaking, the soul of Vivi vanished in an orange and white light. The Lightning Warlock breathed a sigh of relief before turning to Carbuncle.

"Follow him to wherever he goes, keep him company and try to make sure that he stays out of any extreme danger."

" _Why did you do that, you know interference of life and death is forbidden._ " Carbuncle asked, stunned by Ramuh's action.

"Honestly, I really don't know. Maybe it was that he reminded me of a grandson that I had long ago," The Lightning Warlock replied with a smile, silence hung for a couple of seconds before he looked down to the light green creature, "Now please, follow him. Keep him safe in his new existence."

Carbuncle hesitated for a few seconds before giving a firm nod. A light began to build inside the ruby on Carbuncle's forehead before enveloping it in a red flash. When the light faded, Carbuncle was gone. Ramuh smiled fondly before looking back at the remainder of Vivi's group and seeing them being teleported by Kuja.

"Live on young one, may you find a new light to fight for."

* * *

" _What am I feeling right now?"_ Vivi thought, His conscious mind trying to process any information from feeling and hearing since he was too tired to open his eyes. He knew that he lying down on something rather soft while propped up against something hard. By moving his foot just slightly, Vivi heard the recognizable sound of grass being shifted. The hard feeling on his back didn't quite have the same feeling of metal or stone. Also, based on the pressure of his back to said object, it felt circular. It was a tree, he was on the ground resting up against a tree.

" _Am I in a forest?"_ Vivi thought to himself. Finally having the energy to open his eyes, Vivi proved himself right as he saw a blurry forest surrounding him. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Vivi got a better look of the immediate landscape. Tall, thick trees that stretched upwards of about twenty feet and full of green leafs at the tops decorated each direction he looked. The grass was as green and lush as the tree tops. Beams of sunlight shot through the canopy giving plenty of visibility. It all looked beautiful, like whatever gods that made this really took their time in doing so.

To his right, Vivi noticed something that looked like it didn't belong in this forest. A few feet away, a long, white mace rested on the ground, with a simple and smooth body and four 'S'-like pieces pointing in each direction. Vivi recognized it as his Mace of Zeus, although to him is was more of a staff then a mace since it was almost as tall as he was.

Gathering his strength, the young wizard got to his feet and walked over to the powerful weapon. The top heavy weight of the mace allowed Vivi the option of melee attacks, even if he hurled his entire body into the attack. Now with his prized staff in hand, Vivi decided that the next best option would be to look for any signs of life. Since each direction he faced looked the same, Vivi chose a direction at random and began to walk. He took a total of nine steps before a red flash of light appeared a few feet in front of him. Vivi would have pondered what the light was if a smallish green creature didn't shoot out of the light at an alarming speed. The impact that followed knocked Vivi onto his back and knocked out.

" _Ow, that really wasn't my best idea."_ Carbuncle said as it shook it's out of dizziness. It looked around the beautiful forest before noticing the young wizard out cold on the ground. " _Oh dear,"_ Carbuncle said, " _this isn't a good start. Ramuh, I hope you made the right choice in sending me to keep watch."_

 **Notice anything different? Hopefully this turns out to be even better then my last attempt at writing. If anyone has any thoughts or comments about the story, leave a review, I would like to talk a little bit to the people that read my stuff.  
**

 **Oh, and if anyone plans to comment about the length of the chapter, I ask that you please don't. Another reason that I lost motivation last time is because I kept setting stupid word lengths for each to help prevent that, I'm just going to work on each chapter until I feel like it's done, regardless of word count.  
**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading and have a good one everybody.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Holy hell I wasn't expecting that many follows and favorites after such a long absence. Uum, thanks guys, I really don't know what to say, so instead I'll just shut up for now.**

* * *

" _Come on Vivi, it's time to wake up."_ The young wizard heard a familiar, chirpy voice pierced through his unexpected trip into darkness. Wrestling with the task of trying to think of who the voice belonged to, Vivi didn't expect a sudden weight to appear on his chest, and for the volume of said voice to increase tenfold.

" _WAKE UP!"_

Jolting awake, Vivi scanned his surroundings once again to see that he was still in that forest before locking eyes with the source of the voice. A light-green creature about the size of an average dog with small, blue eyes, large ears, and a ruby in the center of it's forehead was sitting square on his chest. While normally someone would have been startled by the odd creature, Vivi couldn't be happier.

"Carbuncle!" Vivi shouted with unmatched glee in his voice as he leaned up to hug the Eidolon. The young wizard wasn't stupid, he knew he was no longer on Gaia. But that did raise a question, where was he? Putting that question aside for a moment, Vivi gave the strongest hug he could manage to the familiar creature that helped his party out many times. Meanwhile, Carbuncle was trying desperately to escape because of either personal space, a need for oxygen, or both. It took a few seconds before curiosity set in for Vivi.

"What are you doing here, where are we?" He asked as he finally let go of his companion.

" _I don't know exactly where we are, but I'm here because Ramuh asked my to follow you."_ Carbuncle replied, looking into the young wizard's eyes. " _Do you remember what happened?"_

Vivi stared at the Eidolon for a while before closing his eyes. The last thing he remembered was fighting Necron. He remembered the battle feeling like it went on for ages. Each casting of a spell or a swing of a weapon taking more and more out of all his friends. He remembered looking over at Zidane, an unspoken plan for a final attack being formed, one last Flare spell, then nothing. No light, no explosion, just a painless dark void that held no passage of time. Opening his eyes, Vivi shook his head 'no'.

Sighing, Carbuncle sat down. " _You might want to sit down for this one, this could make your head spin."_

Taking the words as an order rather than advice, Vivi sat down and looked at his light-green companion like it was getting ready to tell the best bedtime story in history.

" _Alright, first things first, what DO you remember?"_

"Well, I remember fighting Necron with everybody, I remember feeling fear that we would fail as the fight went on, and I remember Zidane throwing his weapon at Necron before I casted Flare," Vivi paused for a second, trying one last time to remember what happened after that before giving up, "After that, everything goes dark, next thing I know I wake up here under a tree."

" _Yup, that sounds about right."_ Carbuncle muttered just loud enough for Vivi to hear. " _Listen Vivi, I'm just going to come out and say it,"_ Now it was Carbuncle's turn to pause briefly before continuing, " _You died at the end of that fight. Ramuh was watching when it happened and intervened in panic when it happened. He went against the laws of nature and sent your life force to a completely different plain of existence."_

Rather than turning hysterical with grief and denying it like Carbuncle expected, Vivi only closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I had the feeling that was the case," Vivi said lowly with sadness lining his voice, "even before the fight started I had the suspicion that it would be my last." Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Vivi asked the first, and only question that came to mind. "Did my friends make it out alive?"

" _Aside from looking a little rough after such a fight, everybody was still alive."_ The light-green Eidolon replied, watching as the held breath of relief escaped the young wizard. Silence stretched for a few seconds before Carbuncle noticed Vivi's shoulders shaking.

" _Are you alright Vivi?"_

"I'm just so happy that everyone lived." Vivi replied, his words broken up between soft sobs. Carbuncle decided to remain silent to allow Vivi to process the news. Meanwhile the mind of the young wizard was a mixed storm of emotions. On one hand he really was happy that his friends survived that final battle. But on the other hand, the thought of if his friends surviving that fight or not didn't come to Vivi until Carbuncle asked about what he remembered. It hurt him personally over not having his friends in mind immediately when he woke up here.

The same people that took him on an amazing adventure and cared for him, he forgot. A couple of minutes passed before the emotional storm passed for the young wizard. While sadness still lingered for forgetting, acceptance washed over him of his role finishing on Gaia. His friends were alive, that's all that mattered.

" _Feel better now?"_ Carbuncle asked, finally breaking the somber silence.

"Yeah, I needed that," Vivi replied with one last sniffle, "But right now we need to figure out if any towns or villages are nearby."

" _One step ahead of you, there seems to be a large cluster of life several miles to the southwest. It could be a large town or even a castle like Alexandria."_

"Well then," Vivi said with renewed energy, "Let's get going."

With that the duo began walking in the direction Carbuncle pointed out. The worry and sadness over his friends pushed out of Vivi's mind in favor of finding civilization. He knew they were good, capable people, they would be able to protect Gaia, but right now he needed to focus on keeping himself and Carbuncle safe.

* * *

"You will retrieve the relic and bring it back here, any questions?" Asked a tall, well dressed man.

"Headmaster Ozpin, will you be providing parachutes to land?" Asked a blonde haired student with a hint of panic in his voice.

"No Mr. Arc, you'll be using your own landing strategy." The man now known as Ozpin replied.

The student's face morphed into horror as the person next to him was launched from the platform she was standing on into the air, only barely being able to hear, "Good luck Jaune!" before the student disappeared from eyesight.

Jaune looked back at Ozpin in horror. "You're a madma-AAAAA-!" Jaune said before being launched off the massive cliffside towards the Emerald Forest below.

The tiniest smirk pulled at Ozpin's lips. "I love it when that happens." He said to himself before taking a sip from his coffee cup.

Meanwhile, Jaune was screaming at the highest pitch he possibly manage while flailing wildly through the air. In midst of his panic, Jaune noticed the quickly approaching forest below. This only caused him to panic more as he didn't have a landing strategy, unless you counted crash landing as one.

Jaune closed his eyes and prepared for pain as he entered the canopy, hitting several branches on the way down before suddenly stopping before hitting the ground. Jaune opened his eyes and looked up to see a long, bronze colored spear had pinned him to the tree by his hoodie.

"Sorry!" A female voice shouted from a distance.

Looking around to see that nobody was nearby to help, Jaune decided to try and get himself down. Jaune reached up to grip the weapon and pulled, but the spear didn't budge. He tried shifting his weight, using the tree as leverage, and even tried to rip his hoodie to free himself. All attempts yielded the same result, he was stuck being suspended above the ground until someone got him down.

A couple minutes went by before Jaune heard someone approaching. A young woman was jogging at a brisk pace towards his direction, her fiery red hair and Spartan-like armor an easy contrast to spot in the forest.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted in joy, happy to see that his most recent friend was the one that saved him from a painful, and perhaps fatal landing.

"Jaune, are you alright?" Pyrrha asked as she immediately pulled her spear from the tree and freeing the blonde haired boy.

Jaune dropped to the ground and winced in pain as a muscle in his lower back twitched. "Yeah, although my back hurts a little."

The red headed warrior looked over Jaune to access the damage. Aside from a few minor cuts and scrapes and the aforementioned muscle, Jaune looked like he would fine, but there was one problem that Pyrrha noticed.

"Jaune, why isn't your Aura healing these cuts?" Pyrrha asked.

"What's that?" Jaune answered sincerely with a question of his own, shocking the red haired warrior even more.

"How do you not know about Aura!?" Pyrrha yelled, as if she were expecting an answer from Owm himself.

"It's...complicated." Jaune replied, finally putting an end to the exchange of questions as he looked away from his friend.

Realizing she probably wasn't going to get an actual answer, Pyrrha closed her eyes and focused her own Aura into her hand. The blonde haired boy noticed that his friend's hand was a bright orange color. Before he could ask about what she was doing, Pyrrha placed her hand onto his chest. Jaune's body began to glow a bright white as all his little cuts healed, even his back felt better.

As the glow faded, the red headed warrior opened her eyes with a look of amazement now on her face. "I've never seen such a large pool in one person before." She whispered to herself.

"Wow, I feel better then ever," Jaune exclaimed, "What did you do?"

Pyrrha snapped out of her amazement and focused on the blonde headed boy once again. "I unlocked your Aura with my own, now any minor injuries shouldn't require much, if anything to heal over."

"That's amazing, thank you!" Jaune replied, giving his friend the biggest smile he could manage, unaware of the growing red tint on Pyrrha's cheeks.

"Well now that we got that resolved, what do you say we start heading towards the ruins?" Pyrrha asked.

"Sounds good partner, lead the way." Jaune replied as he checked to make sure that he still had his equipment.

Once everything was checked, the two began walking towards the direction of the ruins as instructed. This being the first time Jaune had been in the Emerald Forest, he was surprised with how beautiful, yet similar everything looked. Each direction looked like a copy of another, with only small details being the differences. An extra rock here, a smaller bush there, without proper awareness and guidance, the average person could easily get lost here.

"So um," Jaune began, pausing to realize that he had nothing to talk about with his new partner for the next four years. "What do you think of this initiation?"

"I personally think it was a little unorthodox with how Ozpin launched us into the forest, but other then that it seems normal for these kinds of academies." Pyrrha replied without missing a beat. She knew it was commonplace for high level academies to send their new students on fetch quests at the start of the year. Now only did it give the professors a first look at each student's strengths and weaknesses, but it also allowed the students to work together in a high pressured situation.

The exchange was brief as an awkward silence settled between the two once again. Jaune, now noticing the awkwardness, decided to try and keep the conversation going. "Well are you happy to be here?"

"Actually I am. I've always wanted to help others, and I can't think of any better way than to become a Huntress." Pyrrha replied with honesty. "What about you Jaune?"

"I'm very happy to be here," Jaune beamed, his excitement almost contagious with how it radiated off him, "Although I am a bit nervous."

"I don't think there is anyone who isn't nervous about this." Pyrrha said as she stopped to turn and look her partner in the face. The words seemed to have a positive effect on the blonde headed boy as his shoulders relaxed and his smile grew. This in turn caused Pyrrha to smile back. Now that the silence turned from awkward to comfortable, the two continued in the direction of their destination. A few minutes with by witb on and off conversation before a large cave caught the attention of Jaune. With curiosity taking over, Jaune want to investigate, bringing an unsure Pyrrha along with him.

"Jaune, I don't think we should go in there," She said, already knowing what he was about to suggest. "We don't know if any Grimm are in this cave."

"Exactly," Jaune said with an almost out of character confidence in his voice, "Which is why we should make sure that it's safe for everyone, right?"

"I suppose." The warrior girl replied, still unsure of the whole thing. Having come to an agreement, the two began to descend the slope into the cave. Their vision quickly began to fade the further they went down until it was impossible to see anything.

"I don't suppose you have a light on you?" Jaune asked with a nervous laugh as he mentally questioned his decision making. As soon as he asked, Jaune was greeted with a dim, golden light in front of his face.

"Thanks Pyr!" Jaune said happily and grabbing the light in front of him. He thought nothing of the scorpion stinger shaped light before he felt a tap on his shoulder. Looking over, he was met with his partner furiously shaking her head. It took Jaune a few seconds before the realization hit him, to which he only said two words.

"Oh crap."

Letting go of the light immediately, the duo ran back towards the exit as multiple heavy steps and an intimidating growl followed swiftly behind. The two students ran out and a little bit away from the cave before turning to see the stuff of nightmares. A large, black scorpion with thick, white bone plates covering most of it's body and a golden stinger busted out of the cave and stared down the duo. Realizing that this area was not the best option to try fighting this thing and that they were both outmatched, Jaune suggested the best option he could think of.

"RUN!" He shouted as both bolted in the opposite direction with the Grimm creature following in aggressive pursuit. Before they could even get past the first tree, instincts kicked in for Pyrrha as she dragged herself and Jaune to the forest floor. As soon as she did, a fireball about as big as they were roared past their prone bodies and crashing into the grimm.

The two students watched as the fireball impacted the Grimm violently, causing the giant, menacing scorpion to be launched upwards onto it's hind legs. Jaune and Pyrrha went wide eyed as only the back half of the scorpion crashed to the ground. Quickly snapping out of their shock, the two stood up and turned to thank their savior, only to be met with the last image they expected to see.

A kid about at the height of an average twelve year old, wearing a blue overcoat, a broken, brown steeple hat, and holding an ivory mace that was almost as tall as the kid stood several feet from them with a triumphant stance. To make the image just a little more strange, a green, fox-like creature walked out from behind the kid and stared directly at the two students.

" _You know it's courteous to say thank you to those who help you right?"_ A chirpy voice said coming from the creature. Confusion grew on Jaune's and Pyrrha's faces faces to comedic levels before they both rubbed their eyes, thinking that this was some sort of hallucination. The two students looked back to see that they were, in fact, not hallucinating before Pyrrha decided to speak up.

"Um, thank you?" She said, unsure of herself believing it.

"Not a problem, I was happy to help." Came the reply in a light, soft spoken male voice.

With what seemed to be a reoccurring theme that day, an awkward silence filled the air for what felt like minutes before the kid decided to break it.

"Well I've got to get going, you two be safe," The small boy said while shouldering the mace, "Come on Carbuncle, let's go."

"Wait," Jaune shouted, finally shaking off his stupor, "where are you going?"

"I'm headed towards the nearest town, why?" The boy replied.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright, um…" Jaune paused to try and think of what to call this kid.

"My name is Vivi, and I'm sure I'll be alright, that wasn't the first one of those things I've defeated today."

Before anyone else could say or do anything, a loud, female scream could be heard in the distance. All four of them looked towards the direction that the scream came from before the two known as Carbuncle and Vivi began running in that direction as fast as possible. Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other briefly before they too began running to help whoever was in trouble. But as they ran, only one thought settled in Pyrrha's' mind, ' _That kid has already killed more Deathstalkers?'_

* * *

 **No joke, the reason this took so long was because I tried for days to write a decent fight scene between Vivi and the Deathstalker. As I'm sure you guys are aware, it didn't really work out. Also, things like Hearthstone, Final Fantasy 12, and Darksiders 2 might have also kept me away from writing…**

 **But that's the end of this chapter. Comments? Questions? Review and ask, I'll try to answer back as soon as I can. Thank you and have a good one everybody!**


	3. Chapter 3

**To the one that recently posted the question, ask and you shall receive. But for those of you who want something to blame, blame Destiny 2. I can't say much more then that for now, so enjoy.**

* * *

Ruby's time at Beacon had so far been a mixed bag of delight and sadness. On one hand she was finally joining at said prestigious academy, joined at the same time as her sister, Yang, had already made a new friend in a guy named Jaune, and had gotten to test out her new modifications on her scythe/sniper rifle combo weapon, Crescent Rose. All of which are great things to happen to someone who is starting a new year of learning to fight monstrosities.

But on the other hand, she tried, and failed to properly introduce herself to the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, Weiss Schnee. The ordeal started out normal with Ruby being polite, smiling, and trying to find a common interest to hopefully build up from there. The failure came when Ruby accidentally sniffed up some fire dust and sneezed, causing a small explosion. This caused Weiss to gather her belongings and storm off as she tried to straighten her white hair back to the way it was, but not before she threw a few insults at the black and red headed girl.

That wouldn't be the last time that Ruby failed at trying to make friends that day as later on that night, the two girls ran into each other again, only this time with Yang and a new girl named Blake were there to witness it all. While nobody blew up this time, the interaction still resulted in the heiress storming off, but without insults as she left.

However with only her second day at Beacon, Ruby could add despair to that bag of emotions as a giant Nevermore flew overhead, looking for the right angle in which to attack. Right now she was joined with her new reluctant partner Weiss, her sister Yang, and Yang's new partner Blake. But before the four could come up with a plan to take care of the raven Grimm in the sky, a series of heavy footfalls was heard approaching from behind. A large black bear covered in bone armor plates came bursting through the trees, adding another layer of fear to the girls. That fear immediately turned into confusion and shock as the intimidating Grimm fell flat onto it's face dead, and an orange haired girl hopped off it's dissolving back.

"Aww, it's broken." The girl said with genuine sadness that her new ride suddenly quit on her. The weird scene got even weirder as a black haired boy with a small streak of magenta and dressed in green came running up from where the Ursa came from. Exhaustion and worry was firmly on his face as the boy bent down and grabbed his knees, completely out of breath as he took in deep breaths.

"Nora, please don't ever do that again." The boy pleaded in between breaths.

"Ok, Ren!" Nora replied with a smile, her previous sadness clearly an afterthought.

"Welcome to the party, we're about to die." Yang said, gaining the attention of the newcomers. The two gave the blonde haired teen questioning looks before hearing the terrible screech from the sky. All six of the students now looked up to see the Grimm flapping it's wings while remaining in place.

"Take cover!" Weiss screamed with a look of realization. Everyone else immediately followed the heiress' advice, running and leaping away from the area as several large, black feathers impacted with lethal velocity.

"Does anybody have a plan for fighting that thing?" Ren asked as the Nevermore shrieked in anger and began looking for a new angle to strike.

"We have to bring it to the ground somehow, any ideas?" Asked Ruby, only to be met with many different ways of saying 'no'. "Well we have to think of something, that thing isn't going to stop chasing us anytime soon."

It was here that Blake heard several sets of footsteps approaching at a steady pace. Looking over the heads of Nora and Ren, the secret cat faunus spotted Jaune, Pyrrha, a small kid, and a strange green animal running towards them. While she wanted to question the odd duo running with the Beacon students, the continued screeches of the Nevermore forced her to ignore it for now.

"Have you guys seen that Grimm in the sky?" Jaune asked frantically as he did a quick scan to make sure that everyone was alright.

"No you dunce, we've just been standing around and singing songs." Weiss replied with a harsh tone.

"Weiss, you didn't have to be mean, Jaune was just making sure that we were alright." Ruby chastised.

"Well he shouldn't have asked such a stupid question." The heiress fired back.

"Guys, we can argue about this later, right now we need to take care of that thing!" Jaune shouted, getting everyone on the same page.

"Vivi, can you do anything to bring that Nevermore to the ground?" Pyrrha asked.

"Not really, my mana reserves are low until I can get a long rest." The kid now known to everyone as Vivi replied.

Another deafening screech was heard from above as everyone looked up to see the aerial Grimm flew closer to the trees in search of it's prey. While it was closer, Jaune noticed that it was still ready to fly away at the first sign of danger, and immediately thought of an idea.

"Vivi, do you by chance have anything that can slow it down?" Jaune quickly asked.

"I do, but after that I'm out of mana." Vivi replied, getting ready to cast his last spell of the day.

"Alright, when Vivi slows that thing down, Pyrrha and I will brace ourselves and angle our shields up. Then everyone else will jump off our shields towards the Nevermore. When you get up there, start attacking the joints of the wings and bring it to the ground. After that, I'm sure Ruby can remove the head with her weapon. Sound good?" The blonde haired boy said with a firm voice. Looking amongst the others, Jaune was happy to see that everyone else was on board with his plan. "Great, let's do this!"

The group backed up and readied themselves as Vivi muttered a quick incantation and waved his ivory mace in the direction of the Grimm. The Beacon students watched as an orange, semi-translucent clock appeared on the face of the Nevermore. The large minute needle began to turn at a fast pace before rapidly slowing down before disappearing. As the clock vanished, the wings of the Nevermore began moving at about a quarter of the speed than before. It's previous deafening screeches now slowed to a distorted gurgle.

"NOW!" Jaune yelled as he and Pyrrha rushed towards the creature. Both ran to about the halfway point between the Grimm and the group before making a sharp about-face and dropping to one knee and raising their shields above their heads. Not wasting a second and wanting to break another animal of darkness, Nora let out her fiercest battle cry as she charged with her oversized silver hammer/dust grenade launcher, Magnhild.

Ren, briefly startled by his childhood friend's sudden outburst, sprinted after her with his weapons ready. A couple of green pistols with long, green, sickle-like blades extending from beneath that barrels that he named, StormFlower.

The next two that make a run towards the shieldbearers was the team of Blake and Yang. Blake's unique weapon, Gambol Shroud, was made up of two pieces. The first was a long, thin, black blade with a pistol morphed into the handle. The other piece was the weapon's sheath, which also acted as a thicker, heavier blade, both of which she wielded in a ready form.

Yang followed right beside her partner with her prized shot gauntlets, Ember Celice loaded and ready to fire. Both yellow, armor plated gauntlets allowed the blonde brawler to effectively fight in not only close range thanks to the extra protection, but medium range thanks to the dust rounds loaded inside the armguards.

The last two to charge forward was the team of Ruby and Weiss. The heiress to the Schnee Dust Company wielded her priceless and elegant dust rapier, Myrtenaster. This personal weapon was made up of a long, thin blade, a silver handle and handguard, and a six chambered revolver connecting the blade and handle. Each chamber was filled with a different kind of dust like fire or Ice, to which she could switch between with the squeeze of a trigger at the top of the handle.

Finally last, but most certainly not least, was the child prodigy, Ruby with her almost comically sized red and black scythe, Crescent Rose. This was perhaps the most unique weapon of them all as not only was it also a long ranged, high powered sniper rifle, but the length of the scythe form was almost twice as tall as it's wielder. Now normally a weapon like this would be extremely difficult to use, but thanks to the training from her uncle Qrow, practice, and her aura, the Beacon Prodigy made it look effortless.

As the last two students were launched towards the winged creature, Jaune and Pyrrha turned to watch and saw an amazing, yet somewhat comical sight. Six Beacon students were carefully and awkwardly shifting around each other as they all took shots at the joints of the wings. Even with all these different sources of pain, it took the Nevermore about a minute before it reacted, but by then it was already too late.

With two wet, simultaneous snaps, the weakened wing joints of the avion broke off because of the weight. The detached wings returned to normal speed as they impacted the ground before slowly dissolving.

Keeping with the plan, Ruby extended the length of her scythe and positioned the curved blade underneath the Nevermore's neck. As the bird began to catch up with time and fall faster, Ruby began firing her sniper towards the ground, pulling her blade through with each pull of the trigger. Finally as the Grimm caught up with time and impacted the ground, Ruby fired the last round in her clip to separate the head from the body.

The six students jumped off the dissolving back of the Nevermore and in front of the group of three and the weird fox creature. With adrenaline shooting through everyone's veins, a quick breath of relief was had before all of them erupted in cheers, happy that the plan worked flawlessly.

As everyone took some time to calm down a little before grabbing their relics and returning to Beacon. In the meantime, those that hadn't yet decided to find out about the kid that slowed the Nevermore.

"Everyone, say hello to Vivi Ornitier." Pyrrha said as she forced the young wizard into the spotlight. Vivi, although tried and shy, managed to timidly wave at each of the other students, all of which looked like they had a million questions to ask. However, before anyone could introduce themselves or ask questions, the ear shattering volume of Nora Valkyrie caused everyone to recoil.

"THAT WAS SO COOL HOW YOU WAIVED YOUR MACE AND SUDDENLY THE NEVERMORE SLOWED DOWN AND TH-!"

"Nora," Ren shouted, gaining the attention of his childhood friend, "that's enough, you're being too much for everyone."

"Oops, sorry everyone." Nora replied with a sheepish smile.

"Now that she's been taken care of, why don't we introduce ourselves. My name is Weiss Schnee. I must say, that thing that you did to slow the Nevermore was very impressive." The white haired girl said as she extended her hand to Vivi.

"Thank you," The wizard replied as he took the heiress' hand and shook it, "Not to sound like I'm bragging or anything, but that was actually one of my more simpler spells.

"Does that mean you have cooler ones?" Ruby asked with hopeful glee.

"He does, he actually threw a big fireball at a Deathstalker to save Pyrrha and me." Jaune answered with an almost fanboy tone.

"Truth be told it really was impressive, I had never seen anything like it." The Spartan said, a little offput with how Jaune and Ruby had already split off to talk about their excitement of potentially seeing more spells in the future.

"Guys, not that I'm amazed with what we just seen, which I am," Blake said, looking towards Vivi at that last line, "But we still have to complete our orientation."

The Beacon students all looked at each other with faces that said 'oh, right' before all eight began walking towards the ruins where the relics of the orientation were at.

Vivi and Carbuncle watched in silence as the students walked away while still chatting about his 'Slow' spell. It took a few seconds before Vivi's attention was drawn to Carbuncle letting out a heavy sigh.

"What's wrong?" Vivi asked.

 _"I just realized something,"_ The light-green said before pausing, seemingly hesitant to say what it was, _"We're not only no longer in the same dimension, but we're not even in the same reality anymore."_

"What does that mean?" Vivi asked, almost afraid of the answer because of the way his companion was acting.

 _"That means that whatever Ramuh did ripped everything about you from Gaia and put it here,"_ Carbuncle said carefully, watching as the young wizard slowly processed the news. _"Vivi, I'm so sorry, but your friends on Gaia don't remember you anymore."_

* * *

 **What does this mean, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN!? As I hope you guys can see, I think I've got some good plans for the future of this little story. Now I will be starting the next chapter of the RWBY Gene soon, so please be patient with me here. Anyways, let me know what you guys thought of this, and I'm honestly really sorry that this chapter took so long.**

 **Have a good one everybody!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm not going to go into a long story of why I was away for so long, since I don't think I could give any acceptable reason. Long story short, life happened.**

* * *

"What?" The young wizard's voice strained out as the possibility of a breakdown grew. Carbuncle could easily hear the sadness in his voice, which prompted the fox-like creature to try and comfort the boy by nuzzling him affectionately.

" _I know it's difficult to hear, but it's the truth."_ Carbuncle said in a low tone as its own sadness began to grow.

"H-h-how do you know this?" Vivi asked with slight sobs interrupting his question.

" _I'm going by your energy presence. Usually when someone or something is transported into another timeline or dimension, a small portion of their energy presence is left behind, even if it's a tiny fraction. This allows for an easier return to the original location. It's tricky to explain, but it's a lot easier to go then it is to return when it comes to this kind of travel."_

The weight of Carbuncle's revelation stunned the young boy into an almost catatonic state. What was his eidolon friend mean, surely to goodness his friends on Gaia wouldn't forget him, right? As if Carbuncle's words evolved to gain physical mass, Vivi collapsed to his knees under their sheer weight. Vivi's slight sobs began to get louder and louder with each one, quickly becoming a full blown whale of despair, a whale that gained the attention of those he helped just a few moments ago.

"We heard screaming, is everything alright?" Pyrrha asked as everyone came charging through the thicket, each holding what looked to be an enlarged chess piece.

" _Yeah,"_ The fox creature replied, trying to cover the sorrow in its voice, " _He just received some heavy news. We're going to stay here for a little while before heading on our way, it was nice meeting you guys."_

"Actually we might know someone who might be able to help you guys get to wherever you're going." Yang said with her sister-like instincts kicking in.

"Yeah, I'm sure Headmaster Ozpin would be more than willing to help you guys out!" Ruby joined in with her half sister.

" _That's sounds great, you guys go on ahead, we'll follow behind you once my friend calms down."_ Carbuncle replied, looking towards Vivi.

With that the group of colorful students began to quietly walk past the crying child and his assumed pet. The only acception was the rose themed reaper who paused briefly to kneel down and give Vivi an affectionate hug, to which the boy accepted without question. After a brief moment when the young wizard and his eidolon were alone again, Carbuncle crawled into Vivi's arms, allowing the boy to embrace the creature in an unintentionally crushing hug. They both remain in that location in silence, comforting each other as Vivi's quiet sobs continued to make his body tremble for what felt like hours, but in reality was just a few minutes.

"Carbuncle," Vivi whispered, gaining the attention of his now only friend, "Do you think I could have done more to help Zidane and the other back on Gaia?"

" _Vivi, you did everything in your power to help your friends, which was more than enough. I don't think there is anyone that would say otherwise."_ Carbuncle replied immediately in a firm tone. Those words seemed to be enough as with one last sniffle, Vivi stood up and adjusted his broken steeple hat.

"Well," Vivi said before briefly pausing, "Let's get going, we shouldn't keep them waiting too long." As the young wizard picked up his staff and began to follow the group of colorful people, Carbuncle had only one thought cross its mind.

' _That boy is far from being alright.'_

* * *

As the new students of Beacon finally made it up the sheer cliff-side by traversing the natural, winding pathway, the group of eight were met by Headmaster Ozpin and professor Glynda Goodwitch.

"Congratulations, you eight have passed this initiation. Now if you would please make your way to the auditorium, Ms. Goodwitch and I have something to take care of before we start the ceremony." Ozpin said as he greeted his new students.

"Actually Headmaster Ozpin we have something to tell you. While we were in the forest, we met this little boy and his gree-!"

"That is exactly what I was talking about Ms. Rose," Ozpin said, interrupting Ruby's speeding recollection of events, "We've been watching everything, so we know about the boy and his talking fox."

"Oh," Ruby replied disappointed after being so eager to recall everything, "I guess we'll just head inside."

As the students began to shift past the two authority figures, Pyrrha stopped for a moment to make a request. "Please be easy on him, that boy seems to be going through a lot." The only reply the red haired spartan received was a small nod from the headmaster before being motioned to follow her fellow students. Only when the two professors were left alone for some time did Glynda finally speak up.

"Headmaster, what exactly do you plan to do with this strange boy and his pet?" Goodwitch asked, turning her head towards her boss.

"That's a very good question Glynda, I suppose we can start by talking to them." Ozpin replied as he gestured towards the cliff where a boy in a blue coat and a small green fox with a ruby embedded in its forehead emerged.

"You seem to be full of surprises young man," The Headmaster said gaining the attention of Vivi who had a troubled look in his eyes. "My name is Ozpin and this is my assistant Glynda Goodwitch."

"I'm Carbuncle and this is my friend Vivi, we were told you could help us with getting to the nearest town or village." Replied the the eidolon while keeping eye contact with the headmaster.

"Indeed we can, but I would like to ask you two a few questions, and I assume you both know what they would be about," Ozpin answered, receiving nods from the boy and his companion, "Good, now if you would follow us, Ms. Goodwitch and I have something important to take care of before we can have a conversation."

As Ozpin and Glynda turned and began walking towards the massive building, Vivi and Carbuncle shot each other a nervous glance before following the two adults, with the same thought running through both their heads.

' _I don't have a good feeling about this.'_

* * *

As the two were led through what they learned was a school of all things, they couldn't help but silently marvel at how simple, yet elegant everything was. From the crystal clear windows and extravagant lighting, to the detailed portraits of what they guessed were important people and locations, the four finally walked into what looked like a bizarre office.

Gears and dials cranked and ticked beneath and behind the walls and floor. The front half of this rather large room was left barren of any decor or furniture, however the back half had a large, grey, square area rug, a grey couch with a coffee table in front of it, and a black desk with one black chair behind and two smaller black chairs in the front of it sat at the very back of the room. Perhaps the most eye catching aspect of the room, was the window at the very back that replaced the entire wall, allowing a perfect view of the school grounds.

"Feel free to make yourselves as comfortable as possible, we should be back up here within an hour at the latest." Ozpin said snapping the two newcomers out of their silent amazement. Before the two could even process any quick questions they might have had, the door to the office was closed, leaving Vivi and Carbuncle to contemplate what was going to happen.

" _I don't know what it is about that man, but I don't have the best feeling about him"_ Carbuncle finally said after waiting a brief moment to make sure they were alone.

"So you felt it too?" Vivi asked, happy to know that he wasn't alone with his uneasy feeling.

" _Yeah, him and the woman both seemed heavily guarded the moment they laid eyes on us, as if they thought we were dangerous."_

"Why would they think we were dangerous if we've never met them before?"

" _Honestly, I don't know, but we need to be ready to get out of here in case things get bad."_ Carbuncle finished as it finally decided to sit down on the couch with Vivi following behind.

The minutes passed in tense silence as both of them began thinking of possible ways to escape without any help from Vivi's magic. Each scenario that they either thought of themselves or together was quickly crushed, either by their lack of knowledge of the location, the assumed massive numbers against them, or both. In fact, the two were so wrapped up in their own private discussion, that they didn't notice Ozpin and Glynda had returned until a cough snapped them back into reality.

"I'm sorry for startling you two like that, but I would like to have our conversation now." Ozpin said as he gestured to the chairs that sat in front of his desk, which Vivi and Carbuncle immediately moved to while Ozpin sat in his chair and Glynda stood beside him.

The Headmaster then took what felt like hours to pour himself a fresh cup of coffee, almost as if it was intentional, before focusing back onto the strangers.

"Now here is what's going to happen, you two are going to tell me why you suddenly appeared in the Emerald Forest, began slaughtering Grimm with such levels of arcane power that has never been seen in Remnant's entire history, and why you have the same type of energy as Grimm." Ozpin sternly said while looking Vivi in the eyes.

The demand from the Headmaster had Vivi and Carbuncle both alarmed and confused. Alarmed for the fact that the man's previously calm outlook suddenly shifted to a fierce one, and confused because they didn't have the first clue as to what he was talking about. When both of them looked like they weren't going to respond, it was Glynda who decided to speak up.

"I advise you both to start talking, this can only end poorly if you choose to remain quiet."

"But I don't know what he's talking about!" Vivi practically shouted, allowing his childlike behavior to slip out.

" _We honestly don't,"_ Carbuncle assisted in explaining, " _We don't really understand how we got here either, we don't even know where 'here' is."_

"So you expect us to believe that you two just randomly popped into the forest and began using powers that even the strongest military force on Remnant could only dream of using?" Glynda fired back, clearly not believing their statements.

"Now Glynda, let's take a step back," Ozpin said, trying to calm his partner's ever growing unease, "How about we try this again, except start with explanations?"

As if the silence from the two adults was a sign for Vivi and Carbuncle to explain, they began to tell their outlandish story. The tale began with how Vivi came to meet his best friend Zidane and the adventures they had from there. From their escape from Alexandria castle on the theater ship, to being on the run from queen Brahne's henchmen.

Vivi also went into detail about the eidolons, much to Carbuncle's hesitancy of letting these strangers know of such powerful entities by name. The young wizard started with his encounter of the lightning eidolon, Ramuh, to then seeing the destructive powers of Odin, Atamos, and Bahamut. However, there were two topics that Vivi spent the most time talking about.

The first was of how Vivi came to discover how he was actually made in a factory and his so-called true purpose as a prototype for war. He described the feelings of fear, sadness, disgust, and anger weighing down on him all at once when watching their mass production. Then he talked about how he went into a blind rage when he saw them all get destroyed by the Black Waltz. Although, that last part Vivi did mention that he was told all that by his friends, since Vivi himself didn't remember it.

The young wizard also recalled his memories and feelings of seeing the Black Mage Village for the first time. Learning that there were others like him who were also made for destruction, yet able to choose their own lives. It really helped Vivi to not feel so small and alone.

The other topic that Vivi talked about a lot was of a man named Kuja. Every word the young wizard spoke about him was full of nothing but venom and hatred, to the point where Carbuncle had to ask Vivi if everything was alright. When Vivi finally ended his story by telling the two adults when he woke up in the forest, it was already close to night time.

"Well Vivi, I must say that was quite an amazing adventure you and your friends went through," Ozpin said as he and Glynda leaned back in their chairs, "But my question is what do the both of you plan to do now?"

" _In all honesty, we don't know. Our original plan was to just find the nearest town or village and go from there."_ Carbuncle said as it stood up to stretch.

"Regardless of what your plans are, I believe it's too late to do anything. Glynda," Ozpin said, gaining the attention of the Huntress, "Would you please escort these two to a guest room please?"

"Yes Headmaster," Goodwitch said as she stood and straightened her attire, "Follow me please."

With that the three began walking towards the elevator, but before they reached it, Ozpin spoke up again.

"I will have Ms. Goodwitch to collect you two first thing early morning, so I advise you get as much rest as you can." With that the trio stepped into the elevator and descended to the ground floor, allowing Ozpin to process what he heard in peace.

* * *

The walk through the academy's halls was a little eerie for Vivi and Carbuncle. Where the sounds of students having normal discussions could be heard, there was now only dead silence, like all the noise suddenly switched off. It reminded the both of them of the night after Bahamut's attack on Alexzandria.

Shaking off that uneasy memory, Vivi decided to focus on his surroundings and the turns they were taking. The young wizard still wanted to have an escape plan in case things went wrong. After all, you don't go through what he did without becoming a little more cautious.

Meanwhile, the tense silence was starting to get to Carbuncle, so it decided to try and break it.

" _So, do you believe anything we said?"_

"Honestly I don't," Goodwitch replied while still looking straight ahead, "But it doesn't matter what I believe, the only one you two should worry about believing you is Ozpin."

"Do you think he believes us?" Vivi asked having been pulled from his focus by his friend's question.

"I don't exactly know that either, but it does seem like he trusts you enough, otherwise he wouldn't be allowing you two a place to sleep here." Goodwitch replied, glancing down at the boy.

" _That reminds me, what was he talking about when he spoke about Vivi's magic?"_ Carbuncle asked with genuine curiosity.

This question caused Glynda to stop in her tracks, contemplating how to answer. Finally, she just sighed. "The level of arcane power your friend here showed in the Emerald Forest is far greater than ever reported throughout history. Just from one of his fireballs registered more energy than an Atlas Dust Bomb, yet the explosion was contained perfectly. No one on Remnant has ever seen that kind of controlled destruction. When Ozpin first saw it, he showed something that I've never seen since I've known him."

"What was it?" Vivi asked.

"Fear," Goodwitch replied while looking Vivi in the eyes, "Anyways, here is where you two will be sleeping tonight. I will be here at six o'clock sharp to escort you to Headmaster Ozpin, so I suggest you get to sleep soon." With that, Glynda unlocked the door and began walking back the way they came before turning out of sight, leaving Vivi and Carbuncle by themselves.

" _Why do you think that Ozpin guy was afraid when he saw your Firaga spell?"_ Carbuncle asked, still looking in the direction Goodwitch went.

"I don't know, but she's right, we should probably get as much rest as we can." Vivi replied, earning a nod from his companion.

The two walked into the room that could only be described as simple. Two beds sat at both ends of a window at the opposite part of the room. There was also a small desk that sat right next to the door, but that was it, nothing else was in there. Eager to sleep their fatigue away, the two got into separate beds before turning out the light and going to sleep.

* * *

As Glynda made it back to Ozpin's office, she was met with the sounds of various videos that they seen earlier that day. Every video that featured Vivi casting a spell was being played simultaneously with the Headmaster intensely focusing on all of them. Wasting no time, Goodwitch walked up and sat in the chair next to him to get a better look.

"What do you think of their story?" Glynda asked once the videos started to loop.

"It was certainly entertaining if nothing else, but if you're asking if I believe them, then I'm not sure. On one hand it all sounded like it was torn straight from a fairy-tale, but on the other hand, everything they said was with such seriousness, as if it was all true to them." Ozpin said as he watched a fireball manifest from the boy's staff and impact a Deathstalker.

"The level of raw power that boy has is terrifying, I can only wonder what the Red Queen could do with something like that." Glynda whispered to herself while still speaking loud enough for Ozpin to hear.

"Which is why we're going to run some tests in the morning. I want to be completely positive that he isn't some sort of spy or sleeper agent, and if he isn't, then I want to make sure he never falls into her hands." Ozpin said after finally shutting off the videos.

"And how do you plan to do that, you not going to torture him are you?" Glynda asked.

"Of course not, but it would be seriously frowned upon by normal society," Ozpin grimly replied as he stood up and collected his coffee mug and cane, "Glynda, send a message to Professor Oobleck and tell him to meet me in my office in the morning. Also, send a message to Qrow and tell him to return at once, things just got a lot more complicated."

Without waiting for an answer, Ozpin walked to the elevator and descended out of his office, leaving Glynda to her tasks.

As Goodwitch began typing the messages, only one thought crossed her mind.

'I hope that whatever he's planning isn't as bad as he's making it sound.'

* * *

 **I know this isn't much of a return, but this is what was planned before I disappeared. I'm hoping that I made Ozpin and Glynda at least somewhat reasonable in this chapter. Also, I've left a couple of big hints in this chapter as to what I have planned for this story, hopefully there not too vague or obvious.**

 **However, I'm going to be putting this story on a short hold until I get my other story, The RWBY Gene, to the same number of chapters as this one, after that I'll be jumping in between the two. I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned this, but a reminder doesn't hurt.**

 **Have a good one everybody!**


End file.
